Friday, June 25, 2010

Weekend Writing Assignment: Narnia Vol. 8

Here's a weekend post which delegates creativity to you.

Anyone who's read Lewis' Great Divorce knows he was enough of a believer in second chances to have re-invented purgatory. What if there had been an 8th Narnia book? What would the title and basic plot have been?

Rules: It must take place, at least in part, after the death of the Pevensies in "our world" during Last Battle and must involve Susan.

3 comments:

Story opens with Susan, trudging through dark woods, lost and afraid... She hears the powerful, and terrifying, roar of a lion, and knows he must be close by. She feels like she is not alone, but being watched by some ominous being...... She hears something in the woods coming nearer, nearer.... Just as it reaches the glade in front of her and is about to be on her - she wakes up....

Susan has been having this dream ever since about 6 months after the deaths of her siblings.... She knows she should not fear the lion, but has NO IDEA WHY.... She has completely forgotten (by choice) Narnia, and has convinced herself quite thoroughly that there never were such adventures or such a place... So thoroughly, in fact, that she has completely forgotten all of it.....

But now, with Edmund, Lucy and Peter gone... There is something there, tugging at her soul... Something calling her to remember.... Remember and return....

Susan would be a very successful businesswoman. Successful, and lonely. She would have wealth beyond measure, and long for something to fill the emptiness in her soul.... That's when the dreams started...

So, I have a decent opening, but the middle is foggy... Eventually, it would end with her being reunited with Aslan and her siblings.... But only after some symbolic death to self... She would have a big "a-ha" moment in the book in which she humbles herself and thus hears what Aslan is trying to tell her... (Then it would be very clear it was Aslan in her dream, and he was trying to tell her all along, but she was not willing to open her heart to him and listen.... It wasn't until she was willing that she could hear...)

I don't have a clear idea as to plot, in part because it would really have to be a post-Narnian book rather than a Narnian one, but I think Susan should live to a very old age; and, as often happens, in old age rediscovers what was worthwhile about being a child.

One of Susan's strengths and weaknesses was her caution; she was cautious to the point of excess. And this was probably her downfall: it's much more comfortable and feels less dangerous to focus on "nylons and lipstick and invitations" than to follow the yearning that leads to Narnia. The others still meet to talk about Narnian days; she puts it aside as a silly and childish thing. She has to learn again the importance of the claim -- which was said by Aslan, and he does not lie -- "Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen of Narnia." And I think that would be easier having passed the hustle and bustle of this world. So I think it would have to be a story of Susan recovering her gentleness and imagination through her grandchildren.

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